The 71st Hunger Games
by Person456
Summary: This is a story I made up based on The Hunger Games. I thought it would be cool to write about a different year before Katniss and Peeta's time.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

As I sit in my room on the train ride to the Capitol I start to cry again as I let myself think about the events of the day.

Everything was calm when I woke up this morning. Well, as calm as a district can be on reaping day. I got up, ate breakfast and picked one of the dresses my uncle left for me. They are my aunt's old reaping dresses. I know this because there is no way we could afford all these dresses even with both of us working and also because I know my uncle kept all my aunt's things after she died. I pick the smallest, most plain one. This is normal for me; I try not to stick out to much. It's easier that way here in district 8.

I bathe and put my hair up in a bun. Most girls have complicated, beautiful hair styles on reaping day because their mothers do their hair for them. My mother used to do my hair too until she and my aunt died in a factory accident three years ago when I was 12. My father killed himself a year later when I was 14. I live with my uncle now because he is my only remaining relative. He is a kind man but he is clueless when it comes to taking care of children because he has never had any of his own.

When I am ready to go I find him waiting outside of our house for me. We walk to the square together where I am put in a roped of area with all the other fifteen year old girls. My uncle wouldn't let me sign up for tesserae even though we could really use the grain and oil we would get from it. My name is hardly even in the giant glass bowl full of the paper slips containing many girls' names that sits on the stage. The odds are in my favor, I won't be picked. There is no way.

That is why reaping day has never scared me. I feel bad for the two people, one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18, who get picked every year and I wonder what they feel like walking up onto that stage, knowing that in a week or so, they are going to die. Most tributes from this district die within the first few days of being in the arena. All arenas are outdoors and district eight is pretty much all factories and there is not a single plant around. This gives us absolutely no advantage over kids who grow up around nature and know how to survive in it. An even lower chance of survival over the career tributes that are specially trained to fight in these games when they turn eighteen and volunteer as tributes. Not that district eight has never had a victor before, we have, but usually it is the kids from district 1 and 2 that win.

I watch as a weird looking lady with blue hair and light red skin walk out onto stage, she must be knew because I have never seen her at a reaping for this district before. I don't know about other districts because I stopped watching the hunger games when I was 12, after one of my friends, Clarissa Lipe, got reaped. I watched someone I knew get brutally murdered on the first day of the hunger games and I swore I would never watch them again and so I don't. It's illegal not to watch the games but I just leave the television on and sneak out of the house. No one notices, or if they do they don't tell because they would rather not be watching either.

The lady on stage introduces herself as Kayla Gill, which is a very normal name considering she is from the capitol. She shows us a video from the capitol. When the video is over she goes on to say "The hunger games are a very important part of our history. We have peace now because of them." I can't help but think how she wouldn't be saying that if the capitol children got reaped too.

There are two bowls full of name on either side of the stage, one for the boys and one for the girls. She crosses over to the side of the stage with the girl's bowl. "As always, girls go first." She says as she reaches her hand in and dramatically digs around. She finally picks a slip of paper and walks back to the center of the stage. She reads the name on the paper, "Sophia Thread".

It takes a minute for my brain to register that she just said my name.

I walk out of the roped off area and towards the stage. Peace keepers follow me but the get distracted by my uncle who seems to be screaming hysterically and trying to run towards me. The peacekeepers hold him back as I climb on stage. I walk over and stand with Kayla. "Would anyone like to volunteer to take this girl's place?" she asks. I stand there hoping someone will take my place. I'm only fifteen and I'm pretty small too. Smaller than most of the girls my age. I'm about 5 feet 2 inches tall and I weigh about 100 pounds. You would expect one of the older girls to take pity on me and take my place. I stare at them, pleading with my eyes.

All of the girls try to not to make eye contact. Not one girl raises her hand.

"Alright then," Kayla says and she crosses over to the bowl containing the boy's names. It finally sinks in that I am going to die. I look around and realize everyone has their eyes on Kayla as she reaches into the other bowl.

I make a run for it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The peace keepers catch me before I can even reach the edge of the stage and they carry me back to where I was standing before. Two peacekeepers are now standing behind me and one of them is holding my hands behind my back. Tears begin to pour out of my eyes. I look over at Kayla to see my escape attempt didn't even faze her. Things like this happen all of the time.

She reaches her hand in to the boy's bowl and pulls out a slip of paper. She walks back to the center and reads "Holt Stilt." I have never heard the name before. I watch as a boy who looks about 16 comes up and stands on the other side of Kayla.

"Would anyone like to volunteer? "She asks. No on puts their hands up. "Alright then, shake hands you two." She says and I turn to look at Holt. He is very tall and strong looking. I recognize his face even though I didn't know his name. He works in the same factory as I do. He has a much better job because he is older and has been working there longer than I have. We have never talked before. If he wasn't so large I never would have even noticed him. The peace keeper lets go of my hands so I can shake Holt's outstretched hand. As soon as my hands are freed I make another futile attempt to escape.

I elbow the peacekeeper and make another run for it. I make it all the way down the stairs this time and am half dragged, half carried to the justice building. The building where Holt and I will say our final goodbyes to the people we love. It's not a nice building. It's pretty old and run down, but then again so is everything in this district. There is so much smog in the air and there are just ugly buildings everywhere. There is no sign of nature anywhere unless you look through the fence surrounding this district. It's always electrified so I just stand on the other side and watch the animals run through the forest. It is where I spend all of my free time. I don't have much free time. A couple hours on Sunday if I am lucky. With school and the factory it is very rare that I get anytime to myself.

The peacekeepers carry me to a room where I will stay for the hour and get to say good bye. I don't need a whole hour. Only my uncle comes to see me. He is crying and so am I and we are saying goodbye. I had friends. I just guess they don't want to see me. I wouldn't want to see me either. Who wants to see someone who is on their way to die? Especially if you know that you could have saved them? I didn't go to see Rain after she had been reaped. I felt too guilty. I'm sure that is how my friends feel know. I won't be mad at them. We are lead to the train when the hour is up.

Kayla shows us to our rooms and tells us to get cleaned up and be ready for dinner. After dinner we will watch the reapings from the other districts so we can see our competition. Only instead of getting ready I am sitting on my bed crying.

I think I will be doing a lot of crying within the next week. Most tributes try to be strong so that people will sponsor them. I'm not going to bother. Even if I have sponsors I will die. I'm not going to hide what I am truly feeling. I am going to let it show. I don't care about stupid sponsors or anyone in the capitol. I honestly and truly don't. They are the reason I am here know.

They are the reason I will die.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

At dinner there are many rich, delicious looking foods. The whole table is covered. My mouth is watering but I won't give in. I want nothing to do with the Capitol, and that includes their food.

Kayla, Holt and our mentor are already here. Every pair of tributes gets a mentor. I don't recognize our mentor. She is a bit older than we are. She looks like she is in her mid 20s. She introduces herself as Cecilia. She seems kind and she has a strange motherly quality about her even though she looks like she wants absolutely nothing to do with this whole situation. I can't blame her, I feel the same way. Holt seems to be much stronger than me.

Both emotionally and physically. He does not have red eyes from crying like I am sure that I do. Maybe he can actually win the games. He keeps glancing at me all through dinner." Starving yourself isn't going to help you know." he says to me with an expression that looks like he might actually care, but I don't believe he does. Not for one second,

"What does it matter to you?" I ask, "If I die before the games even begin than that is one less person in your way of winning." I Say cruelly.

He looks at me with shock. "I wouldn't kill you." he says honestly, "even though the creators of the hunger games obviously didn't believe in it, I will not kill someone from my own district."

He looks sincere so I decide to take his word for it. An idea begins to form in my mind. "Let's be allies then." I say, "I promise I won't kill you if you won't kill me."

He looks at me for a second as if he is considering it. "Alright." He says.

Cecilia seems thrilled by the idea of us working together "It's always nice to see two young people who want to work together." She says, "It also helps both of your chances at winning." I smile even though I already know what I am going to do and it does not involve working with Holt as a team, at least not for long. "We will be at the capitol early tomorrow morning. I expect you to be ready by 9am. There will be clothes in your room for you to wear to the Remake Center."

"What is the Remake Center?" I ask.

Kayla looks over at me. "It is the place where your prep teams will make you two presentable for the games so that your stylists actually have some type of beauty to work with." She says in her weird Capitol accent. That was mean, I think. I can't be that ugly. I have pale skin, blue eyes and auburn hair. I look very out of place in my district. I get my looks from my mother and she always looked out of place too.

We watch the reapings from the other districts but I don't even bother to pay attention, I don't want to know the names of the people I will kill, I don't want to hear their families calling their names and crying but mostly I don't want to hear the name of the person who will inevitably kill me.

The next morning I wake up around 7 in the morning. I shower and put on the dress I was wearing yesterday, even though the outfit Kayla told me about is lying neatly folded on the table in my room. I leave my hair down and walk out into the dining compartment where Kayla is seated, but Cecilia and Holt are nowhere to be found.

"Glad to see someone is ready." Kayla comments as I walk in. I sit down at the table but again I do not eat. I'm really starting to get hungry but I just ignore it. Ignoring the hunger is easy for me usually but usually when I am hungry there isn't delicious smelling food sitting in front of me. Holt walks in and sits down followed by Cecilia.

Holt is carrying something with a napkin wrapped around it; he sits down and hands it to me. I give him a questioning look. "It's food from our district. You seemed upset yesterday and I thought maybe if you ate food from home you would feel better." Holt says. I smile. I get a pang of guilt as I think about my plan again but I push it aside.

This is a matter of life or death.

Using him to stay alive is essential.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

When we get off the train we are put in a car and taken to the Remake Center. There, three strange looking women wait for me. They lay me down on a metal table and start ripping the hair from my body, leaving the hair on my head and some of my eyebrows left. Then, one of them works on my nails while another works on my hair and makeup. Somewhere during this process my stylist comes in. She is an older woman who has orange hair and purple tattoos all over her body. She circles around me like a vulture circles prey. I immediately do not like this woman. She talks to me about my costume but I ignore her. I don't care about what she has to say. Eventually she realizes I am not listening and she just gives up and goes to get my costume. She comes back holding the costume with the biggest smile on her face. I look at the costume; it is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I frown at her and tell her how much I hate it. She just shrugs and hands it to me to put on. As I pull on the costume I realize it is also itchy. Great, I think, this costume is even worse than I thought. I go to the room where they keep the chariots to find Holt. He is wearing a matching costume; I stare at him and realize I must look this awful too. We are never going to get sponsors. Who wants to sponsor tributes that have a bunch of thread wrapped tightly around them? The only different between our costumes is I am a pink spool of thread while Holt is blue. As we get onto our chariot we can hear the Career tributes laughing. I go ahead and decide to hate them the most. They are the biggest enemy. The chariots ride outside in order of the districts and before I know it Holt and I are next. I purposely look over at him and make a face like I am about to cry then I hang my head and look down at the ground. He takes the bait unknowingly and lifts my head with his hand. I can see in his eyes that he is already beginning to feel bad for me. This is exactly what I want. If he feels bad for me then he will protect me. If he protects me I have a better chance at winning. A better chance at making it home. If he protects me until the end then I can kill him and be the one remaining tribute. I will become the Victor. "It will be okay." He says still holding my face.

"No it won't." I reply and suddenly we are moving forward. He drops my head and steps away from me with his head held high. I continue to stare at the ground. I start to cry and he reaches over and holds onto me tightly so that I won't fall off. The chariot rides through the town with us like this and into the circle where president snow gives his speech.

We get to the training center building which is also the building where we will be staying. We are on floor 8. On the elevator ride up Kayla and Cecilia congratulate us on looking like we were on a team. I can't help but notice not one of them mentions the horrible outfits and smile quietly to myself. We eat dinner and watch the chariot rides on the television in the living area of our floor. Then, Kayla leads us to our rooms before going to her own. Holt smiles at me and then turns to walk down the hall to his room which is a bit farther back. I call his name and he turns around. I smile at him and say "Thanks for holding me on the chariot." And run into my room as though I am embarrassed.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The next day we are supposed to start training. Holt and I decide to train together. It was his suggestion and I made it seem like I was really happy to go along with it. All day I try to make myself look completely innocent by pretending I can't do anything at all I always fumble on purpose and get Holt to help me. Holt seems to be good at everything but he is best at throwing spears. I guess you get a lot of strength when you have been working at a factory your whole life. I cheer him on while he trains and I can see that he is beginning to trust me more and more as time goes on. Secretly, I am actually learning a lot and getting really good at using a sword. This continues for three more days. Each day at lunch he looks at me more intently. On the fourth day, the day when we are supposed to show our skills to the game makers we sit together talking and laughing until it is our turn to go. I have him fooled, he thinks we are friends, thinks we are allies, thinks I would never kill him. The person I was before wouldn't kill him but the person I am now, the one who is merely trying to survive, she would. I am done being innocent. Maybe I am going crazy, already driven mad by the games, or maybe, deep down I was always crazy. I think we all have crazy in us. Some people's crazy is just easier to find than others. Soon it's Holt's turn to go and then my own. I enter the room with the game makers I purposely pick a station that I am not skilled at but one that I won't completely fail at.

That night, after dinner I enter the room with the TV in it to find Cecilia sitting on the couch with Holt while Kayla sits on a chair. You can tell Kayla is very excited to see our scores. I squeeze down in between Cecilia and Holt. Kayla turns the TV on and you can see everyone's scores. It shows a picture of the tribute with their name and score. The careers do well with eights and nines. Holt gets a nine and we congratulate him. I get a 5. The exact score I was hoping for. I do notice however that the boy tribute from district ten gets a score of 10. That's the highest score this year. I look for his name and see that it is Paul Little. It is a strange name for someone who looks like him with his muscular build and Dark eyes. He will be our biggest competition. After the scores are shown Cecilia and Kayla go to bed but Holt and It stay on the couch. I look at him with wide eyes "I am going to die." I say starting to sob. He puts his arm around me "No you're not, I won't let that happen." He replies. Holt it so kind and caring. Under other circumstances I think me and Holt could actually be good friends. Too bad these aren't other circumstances. I can't let myself think like this. I can't let this boy get to me. I have already closed off my heart. I did it that day, on the train when my cruel idea first came to me, it must stay closed if I ever want to win. Me and Holt fall asleep on the couch, my head on his shoulder.


End file.
